[GoLUG] No graphics browsers

[Steve Litt]

Hi all,

Tonight, at the meeting after the meeting, we discussed browsers, and
some opined that a no-graphics browser like lynx (links, elinks?) might
be an improvement.

I pointed out that my Specific User Runit web page would have been
worthless without the two block diagrams showing how runit's supervisor
works.

Here's an even better example:

https://troubleshooters.com/bicycles/wheelbuilding/index.htm

I dare anybody to convey the same info, in an understandable and
non-ambiguous way, without diagrams.

In order to express that same information without no more ambiguity
than it currently has, the amount of text would probably triple. There
would be no pronouns: names would be repeated everywhere, and would
need to be checked for consistency. The necessary redundancy would be
breathtaking.

There's a reason why every patent application has at least one diagram.
A diagram keeps us "all on the same page", and unambiguously conveys
the kind of information that text just can't.

We shouldn't blame browsers for the spectacularly invalid HTML, CSS and
Javascript created by web authors. Most of my web pages from the last 5
years pass w3c validation with no errors and no warnings. But for every
one like me, there are 100 who slap together any old thing, bloated
with ads that will yield them five dollars a month, throw 50 w3c
validation errors, and look completely different on every browser
because each browser take each validation error and guesses what the
author really meant, and different browsers make different guesses.

SteveT

Steve Litt 
http://444domains.com